Search Committee Tells Miami Chamber That It Needs More Time To Find Ceo

By Kristen Fidh The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce was told by a search committee Tuesday that it needs more time to choose a president and CEO to replace the retiring Bill Cullom.

"We wanted to make absolutely sure that the process wasn’t rushed," said Chamber Chairman Peter Roulhac, who said the committee had planned to ask Tuesday for the executive committee’s approval of a candidate or give it an update on the process.

"There has been no delay at all," said Roberta Kressel, executive vice president of human resources for BankUnited, who is leading the search. "We are just going through a very painstakingly detailed process. Because it is such an important decision, we want to give all the candidates an opportunity to be identified and then make the appropriate decision."

Ms. Kressel is part of a support search committee – along with Dabney "Bud" Park of Performance Executive Search and James Champion of The Champion Services Group Inc. that is narrowing down a list of 98 applicants before the 13-member search committee makes a decision.

This week, the search team interviewed six finalists and is following up with reference checks, Mr. Roulhac said Tuesday.

"The support team did an absolutely outstanding job in screening, preparation work and interviewing to get us at the level we were at (Monday)," he said. "The delay in naming a new president is because any one of the six would be a fine candidate for the job."

"We do have certain individuals in mind, and there is a ranking, but we haven’t finalized the process," said Mr. Champion. "Each one of them talked about teamwork and maintaining (Mr. Cullom’s) tradition while probing change."

Mr. Park said he is confident a new president will be named when the search committee and the executive committee meet Sept. 5.